In recent years, there is a trend to use an increasing number of sensors to monitor the condition of a machine such as a vehicle or home appliance. The condition is then communicated to the user via a display on the machine or the user is alerted to further investigate the condition of the machine by taking the machine to or calling-in a specialist for service. For example, a sensor in the refrigerator may sense that the water filter is due for replacement. When a sensed condition satisfies a service or alarm criterion, an alert may be displayed as a message on a user interface (e.g., screen) or a light indicator (e.g., red/orange) on the front of the appliance. In another example, based on various sensors within a vehicle, an On Board Diagnostic (OBD) system provides the vehicle owner or a repair technician (e.g., via an OBD-II reader) access to state of health information for various vehicle sub-systems. Early instances of OBD would simply illuminate a malfunction indicator light (MIL) when a problem or potential for servicing was detected. However, such an indication would generally not provide any information as to the nature of the problem. More modern OBD implementations (e.g., OBD-II) use a standardized digital communications port to provide real-time data in addition to a standardized series of diagnostic trouble codes (DTC), which allow the service technician or user of the vehicle to look up the code to identify and remedy the malfunction.
Even when a user of a machine is alerted to a malfunction or service schedule, the options to service the machine may still not be clear to the user. For example, a user may not know the different possible solutions, cost involved, how long he or she can wait to service the machine, or which provider can provide products or services for the malfunction or service schedule. Even if the user would try to remedy the malfunction or service schedule (e.g., by taking the vehicle to a mechanic or soliciting a service provider to replace a filter on the refrigerator), the user may not be sure whether a fair price is charged, how long the procedure takes, etc. What is presently missing is immediate feedback with up to date information on the options faced by the user at their present location. Further, providers of service and/or parts do not have an effective way of communicating their schedule availability, price, location, and specials to potential customers in an efficient way.